A/N:Sorry for the delay. I'm not joking when I tell you that they sent my new battery and power charger to France instead of my house in Illinois. This is the Beta'd version, and what a wonderful Beta I have.

Everything stopped in the police station. All the cops stared at the thug that had Murphy in a choke hold and a gun to her temple. The thug had to be at least six feet tall and looked like he could bench press a city bus. If it wasn't for the circumstances of the situation Castle might have actually laughed at the size difference. As it was, Sergeant Murphy's head was dwarfed by the size of the thug's arm.

Castle's mind raced, trying to think of how he could talk himself out of this situation or somehow outsmart the thug. In the back of his mind he kept a log of everything he felt- it would make better writing using what he had actually felt.

"I swear to God! I'll blow a hole through her head! Back OFF!" The thug shouted, rubbernecking to look to his sides and behind him.

Beckett slowly raised her hands to about shoulder height. "Everybody, do what he says," she said to the room in general. People were starting to copy her movements and making a general perimeter around him. The thug had taken Murphy several steps away from where she had been next to Dresden, who was still where he had been when this started. Regarding the thug she spoke with a softer voice, "Don't do anything stupid. We all want to walk away from this. Trust me, if she doesn't walk away you're not going to walk away."

Castle couldn't help but be impressed. With all the adrenaline pumping through his system and how hard his heart was beating he wasn't sure if he'd be able to act that cool. Sure, he'd done it once when the gun was pointed at him, but there were other people at risk here. Looking over to Dresden, Castle was shocked to see an amused smile on his face, as if Dresden actually found this situation comical. Looking to Sergeant Murphy he noted that she looked mad. Very mad, but not the least bit scared. He was wondering just who these people were that regarded having guns pointed at them as a waste of their time. Just what could they have been through that makes being at gunpoint seem so mundane?

Snapping back to present, Castle saw that the thug was walking towards the door and taking the Sergeant with him. "I plan on walking out of here. And she," he shook the woman trapped between his biceps for emphasis, "is going to be coming with me. Insurance policy, you might say."

Taking a step forward Castle mustered enough courage to talk. "And just how do you think you'll get away? What's the plan? To kidnap a cop, from a police station, and then just walk away with a gun pointed to her head?"

Giving Sergeant Murphy another shake and adjusting his grip on his recently acquired pistol, the thug—kidnapper, Castle upgraded his title in his head—just gave a smirk, showing his lack of several teeth.

"No. I saw these two pull up outside when I was in the back of the patrol car I was in. They're in an unmarked car, right outside these doors and the little missy here has the keys." His smile grew a bit, he seemed to be quite pleased with himself. "Once I'm an hour or two out of town I'll drop her off with no harm done. Unless you cops try to stop me; then she dies." Leaning his head closer to Murphy's, while still keeping an eye on everyone around him he put on what he must have thought passed for a seductive voice. "So what do you say honey, how bout you get me those keys? Nice and slow like. If I think you're doing anything funny, kiss you're skull goodbye."

To Castle's amazement, Murphy rolled her eyes and grunted as if the kidnapper had told her a bad joke and not just threatened to kill her. The kidnapper seemed a little confused by her reaction as well. Giving her a little shake from her biceps, he tried again. "Whassamatter missy? I said give me the keys." He pressed the barrel of the trigger to her head a little harder with the last sentence.

A movement at the corner of castle's eye caught his attention. It was Dresden, he had taken a step closer to the kidnapper and started smirking, like he was enjoying this. Who are these people? He noticed that Beckett didn't seem to happy about this either. Before either could say anything though, Dresden opened his mouth.

"She doesn't like you."

The kidnapper looked up at the random comment. A couple seconds passed before he understood what Dresden had said. An evil smirk crossed his face. "Oh yeah? Well that's too bad cause I'm starting to like her more and more. Hehehe. I was just thinking that we might-"

"I don't like you either," Dresden interrupted the kidnapper, "You'd better be careful, we're wanted men! I've got the death penalty in twelve systems!" Dresden had puffed out his chest proudly at that statement.

It was an understatement to say that people were confused at what Dresden had just said.

"What the hell are you talking about man," the kidnapper questioned angrily. He looked Dresden in the eye as he tightened his hold on Murphy. "I don't know who you-"

The kidnapper suddenly got a very faraway look in his eyes and his body relaxed. Overhead, a light bulb burned out. Feeling her opportunity, Murphy dropped into what Castle recognized as a horse riding stance from when Alexis had taken karate. Seeing what was about to happen, Esposito dropped the cup of coffee in his hand and went for his gun. Moving with a fluid grace that only came from years of practice, the Sergeant brought her hands together into a praying pose then thrust them both up and broke the choke hold he had on her and grabbed his gun arm. Murphy shot up as she brought the arm down on her shoulder resulting in the elbow bending in a direction it was never meant to bend with a loud 'POP'. The gun fell out of his hand. Not stopping for an instant, Sergeant Murphy brought her feet together, grabbed the would-be kidnapper's other arm and flipped him onto the ground. The body, gun and coffee mug hit the ground at the same time.

The police station erupted into slightly organized chaos. Castle rushed to pull Sergeant Murphy away from the would-be kidnapper, not so much for her safety but for that of the thug. Beckett, right behind Castle, dropped to the floor next to the thug—kneeing him in the stomach completely by accident—and handcuffed him.

Shaking Castle's arm off her shoulder, Murphy walked over to where Dresden was standing. He looked like he had some kind of headache and was trying to shake it away. Castle couldn't help but notice how close they stood to each other. Before anything could be said, a very angry Beckett stormed over to Dresden.

"Just what the hell was that? I don't know what the two of you are used to in Chicago but around here, doing something that could endanger the lives of everyone inside this station is not acceptable!" Castle had seen her like this before, whenever something threatens her people she takes it personally.

"Detective Beckett!" She turned around to see Captain Montgomery walking over from his office.

"Captain. Sir, these people just-"

Cutting her off with a wave of his hand Captain Montgomery stood in between Beckett and Dresden. "I saw everything, Detective. I'll take it from here." Turning to Dresden, the Captain took a breath before continuing, "On behalf of the New York Police Department, I would like to thank you for your help in defusing what could have been a very disastrous situation."

"But Captain!" Beckett was once again silenced by a wave of the Captain's hand. He continued.

"However, as you are not an actual officer of the law, I must ask that in the future you leave situations such as these to the trained professionals. Do I make myself clear?"

Holding up his hands in surrender, Dresden nodded his head. "Yes sir. In any future situation that I may encounter I will defer to either Sergeant Murphy or Detective Beckett."

Nodding his head, Captain Montgomery looked around, "All right, if that's all then, I've got some serious paperwork to do now." With that, he walked back towards his office.

Murphy elbowed Dresden in the gut and pointed with her eyes to Beckett.

"Oh, right. Um, Detective Beckett, I'm sorry that I acted without telling anyone what I was doing. I guess I sometimes jump without looking."

Becket regarded Dresden for a second before exhaling sharply. "No, no. It's okay. You were helping Sergeant Murphy. None of our people were hurt. I just haven't gotten much sleep over the past few days because of this case so I'm a bit cranky."

Giving a half-laugh, Dresden gave a solemn nod. "I've been there a couple times."

Not being able to resist the jibe, Castle joined the conversation. "Yeah, I bet all those werewolves and vampires and faeries can keep you up at night."

Sharing a look with Murphy, Dresden just laughed.

"What the hell happened here?" Everybody turned to see Ryan slowly walking toward the group, looking around.

Putting her hands on her hips, Beckett turned to Ryan. "And just where have you been?"

"Um, in the bathroom. But seriously, what happened here?"

Leaning his staff up against the nearest desk and plopping down into its chair Dresden gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "It was nothing. Just a slight altercation."

At the same time several officers were helping the severely injured would-be kidnapper past them. When the thug saw Dresden sitting in the chair he straightened up and struggled against the officers to try to get to the other side of the station. "Keep him away from me! The fire…he isn't human…he can kill us all! His shadow is death! A sword hangs above his head! His power! He's not human!" As the officers dragged him away into the other room the screaming quieted.

Looking back at Dresden, Castle couldn't help but be confused. That thug had had his arm broken by someone half his size, but he was terrified of the guy that stared at him? These people were getting more interesting by the minute. "Mr. Dresden, what did you do to that guy? You just looked at him and he went into La-La Land. Was that some kinda magic trick?"

Rubbing his neck and tilting his head to the side, Dresden responded, "I guess you could call it that."

"Magic?" Beckett seemed to find the very word a joke. "Right, and I work for the secret Dollhouse."

Stepping forward, Ryan waved his hand at everyone, "Two things. One, the Dollhouse is real and I don't care what you guys say. Two. Will somebody please tell me what happened here?"

"Nope," came Esposito's response. Walking over and returning Murphy's temporarily hijacked gun to its rightful owner, he continued, "I think that since you missed it you shouldn't be able to know about it."

"Yeah? And just how the heck are you going to keep the whole station from telling me?" Ryan looked pretty smug. Esposito fish-mouthed for a few seconds before looking to Castle. Taking his cue, Castle stool up on the nearby chair and addressed the station in a loud voice.

"Attention everybody! Ryan here missed out on what just took place a few minutes ago. If anyone tells him what happened, I'm taking the cappuccino machine away permanently." This was met with collective grumbles from the police station. Ryan didn't look so smug anymore. Esposito did.

Leaning over to Murphy, Dresden stage whispered, "They have a cappuccino machine. Why don't you have a Cappuccino machine?"

Murphy just pointed to Castle.

Feigning shock, Castle pointed to himself, "Why would you assume that I have anything to do with this?"

Giving him a 'oh please' look that was mirrored on Beckett, Murphy answered, "Because we're cops, and cops are destined to drink bad coffee." This was met by solemn nods from both Ryan and Esposito. "Besides, "Murphy continued, "What cop can afford to buy something like that for the station?"

Raising his hands in surrender, Castle admitted defeat.

"All right," Beckett jumped in before they got further sidetracked. "Would anyone here actually like to work on the case?"

Castle could see Murphy shift into 'cop mode'. He'd seen it on Beckett enough times to recognize it. Moving into the break room they all gathered around the report file while Castle got everyone some coffee, which was met with much enthusiasm by the Chicagoans.

Dresden leaned forward. "Can I get a set of copies of these pictures please?"

Standing up, Esposito offered to get him copies of everything they had from the crime scene.

"So you couldn't find any forensic evidence left behind from the murderer?" Murphy asked while flipping through the rather short forensic report.

Clenching her fists angrily, Beckett answered, "Had a forensic team sweep it twice. All we found was the victim's own blood used to make the occultist designs. Not even a footprint, which doesn't make any sense! There is no way that he wouldn't leave a single mark on the ground with all that blood everywhere."

Looking at some of the pictures that Dresden had, Murphy spoke up, "That's assuming that he was walking on the ground."

Dresden looked up at Murphy on that and nodded his head. "That's a good point."

Snapping her fingers, Beckett ruffled through the pictures of the crime scene till she found the one that she wanted. "Of course! Look, this place is an old warehouse with a network of exposed steel supports running all over the roof. He could have rigged something to these beams to hang him above the ground! That's why we didn't find any footprints at the scene. And he could have escaped using the nearby roofs."

Looking at the picture and getting at where his partner was going with this, Castle got a little hopeful. "You mean like some kind of rappelling system or something like that?"

Beckett only nodded hadn't they thought of this before?

Shrugging his shoulders Dresden nodded, "That's one possibility. But I'd definitely take a look at the nearby roofs."

Nudging Dresden's arm, Murphy asked him, "So, what do you want to do?"

Grabbing the envelope Esposito had just arrived with full of photos of the crime scene, Dresden wiggled his eyebrows. "Road trip."

They all stood up at once and started heading out of the station. Tilting her head back towards Ryan and Esposito, Beckett instructed them to have a forensic team meet them at the warehouse so they could look at nearby roofs and the support beams in the roof. As they exited the building, Murphy got out the keys to her car.

"We'll follow you guys there."

Spinning around to face them, Castle held out his arms. "Whoa! Why don't you guys ride with us? It'll save gas, help the planet and all that. Plus we can bounce ideas off each other on the way there."

Looking at each other, Dresden and Murphy just shrugged and said, "Okay." at the same time.

Walking over to Beckett's car, Castle opened the driver' door for Beckett while Dresden opened the front passenger door for Murphy. Both men received similar glares from their partners and both men replied with a charming grin. Closing the doors for the women, both men looked at each other and gave the other a nod. Castle got into the back seat behind Beckett while Dresden put his staff in the trunk.

Getting into the back seat behind Murphy and taking out his copies of the photos of the crime scene Dresden conversationally asked Castle, "So, you ever think about writing another book?"

A/N: That was a long chapter! Next chapter should be up within a week or so, but I'm having the hardest time placing a "Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" reference...